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ORATION 

DELIVERED AT THE 

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICAN CELEBRATION 

6 9/ 

OF THE ^ / ' 

SIXTY-FOURTH ANNIVERSARY 



INDEPENDENCE OF THE UNITED STATES, 
JULY FOURTH, 1840, 

At the Methodist Episcopal Church, Greene-street, in the City of New-York, 

BY THE HON. SAMUEL YOUNG. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICAN CONVENTION'. 



NEW-YORK : 

PtiiNTED AND PUBLISHED BY JARED W. BELL, NEW ERA OFFICE, 

NO. IGO NASSAU-STREET, AND CORNER OF ANN AND NASSAU STREETS. 



ET lA^ 



\i(o 



^4o 



Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1840, by Jared W. Bell, in the 
Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New-York. 



ORATION. 



We are informed, by the highest authority, that after 
man's creation dominion was given to him not only over 
the vegetable kingdom, but also over the animal tribes. 
The earth with all its appendages was likewise devoted 
to his use. But the ample control which was bestowed 
upon him over both organic and inorganic matter has 
never been found sufficient to satiate that unchastened 
lust of power, which frequently finds a lodgment in the 
human heart. And the perpetuated annals of our race, 
as well as continued observation, instructs us that indi- 
viduals are found in every age, and in every clime and 
country, whose exertions are devoted, either openly or 
covertly, by force or by fraud, to obtain dominion also 
over their equals and fellow creatures. The struggle of 
the few to control the rights and to appropriate the toil 
of the many — the exactions of governments upon the 
governed — and the aggressions of the strong upon the 
weak have, from the remotest periods of antiquity, con- 
verted the surface of the inhabited parts of the earth 
into a vast arena of tears and of blood. 

So successful has ever been this wide and desolating 
war of rapacity upon human rights, that with rare and 
transitory exceptions, the sun, in his diurnal rounds, for 
thousands of years, has shined only on the palaces of ty- 
rants and the graves of the oppressed. 



Stimulated by this rapacious spirit of domination, the 
rulers of Great Britain, by a long course of usurpation 
and tyranny, finally impelled our fathers to invoke the 
God of battles ; first promulgating to the world that so- 
lemn appeal to human reason and to the principles of 
eternal justice, which is embodied in the impressive 
Declaration of Independence, which we have just heard 
read, and whose sixty-fourth anniversary we have assem- 
bled to commemorate. 

The soul-stirring incidents of the protracted struggle 
for Independence, the toils, the sufferings, the sacrifices, 
the stem virtues, and indomitable courage of the heroes 
of the Revolution, have often been the glowing theme 
of the historian, the orator, and the poet. The attempt, 
on the present occasion, of him to whom the honor of 
addressing you has been committed, to give a more vivid 
coloring or to add a new interest to events which have 
been so often portrayed in "thoughts that breathe and 
words that burn," would be a mistaken and abortive ef- 
fort. 

But it may perhaps be useful to indulge in a few brief 
commentaries upon some of the prominent principles, 
the " self-evident truths" which are solemnly proclaimed 
in the Testament of Liberty which was written, and 
signed, and sent forth by our fathers at the imminent 
peril of their lives; and to enquire whether, amongst us, 
these momentous principles have uniformly received, 
down to the present period, not only the theoretical, but 
also the practical assent of mankind. 

" We hold these truths" said they, " to be self-evident, 
that all men are created equal; that they are endowed 
by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that 
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- 
ness; that to secure these rights governments are insti- 
tuted among men, deriving their just powers from the 
consent of the governed." 



5 

When man is considered in his social relations, this 
short extract will be found to contain a perfect compen- 
dium of human rights, and also an exact epitome of all 
the legitimate functions, powers and duty of human gov- 
ernment. 

The declaration that " all men are created equal," is only 
affirming in other words the doctrine of Holy Writ, that 
God of one flesh has made all the children of men. And a 
perfect equality among mankind of legal, social, civic and 
political privileges, is the necessary result of this identity 
of rights and of origin. By this rule of perfect equality 
every legal enactment should be measured, and if it will 
not bear this test, it should be condemned and abrogated; 
for to the same extent that it contravenes this standard, 
it is fraught with injustice, oppression, and outrage. — 
The application of this test to the legislation of every 
age and country will exhibit a vast and continual sacri- 
fice of human rights to the mercenary exactions and the 
capricious ebullitions of power. 

If the human race from the beginning, had been secure 
in the enjoyment of life, liberty and property; or in 
other words, if no portion of mankind had ever mani- 
fested a disposition to perpetrate violence, fraud and 
crime, human government would never have been organ- 
ized. An honest and virtuous community, surrounded 
by communities of the same description, would sponta- 
neously perform every necessary function which is re- 
quired by the social state, exempt from all the exactions 
and sacrifices which are imposed by the artificial and 
expensive machinery of government. 

Protection to " life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- 
ness" embraces all the good that the most perfect gov- 
ernment can bestow. The want of this protection is the 
sole cause of the institution of government; and in the 
same degree that it deviates from this end, and applies 
its powers to other objects it degenerates into an evil 



6 

instead of being a blessing. In proportion as it abandons 
its proper functions, and directs its energies to extraneous 
objects, it becomes a sword instead of a shield. 

Recurrence should frequently be had, by every citizen, 
to the simple and fundamental principles that all men 
are created equal; and that they therefore possess a per- 
fect identity and equality of rights; and that governments 
derive all their just powers from the consent of the 
governed, and are instituted among men for the sole 
purpose of protection. 

These principles possess the virtues of Ithuriel's spear. 
And an application of them to existing laws and institu- 
tions will always produce an instant exhibition of the 
hateful magnitude and enormity of the demon of human 
power. 

Without the shield of government and the protection 
of law, human rights would be insecure. Nor is the 
condition of that community to be less deprecated in 
which the law itself affords countenance and support to 
the aggressor. 

It is a fact, exemplified by all history, that human power 
is ever at war with its boundaries, and that the price of 
liberty is eternal vigilance. 

Where the fundamental principles of government are 
repugnant to the self-evident truth that "all men are 
created equal;" — where wealth and power and honor are 
hereditary, and transmissible from generation to genera- 
tion, it is not strange that the possessor of these exclu- 
sive privileges should finally come to think that he and 
his family are a higher order of beings, and possess bet- 
ter blood than the mass of mankind. It is not surprising 
that he should become conservative, — should cling to 
the abuses of government, and resist every attempt to 
ameliorate the condition of the multitude. He is con- 
scious that while the frame of government is unchanged, 
his children and their descendants will enjoy a superi- 



ority over the mass of mankind. And the pampered 
selfishness of the hmnan heart, is ever ready to grasp 
wealth without toil, honor without merit, and power 
without virtue. 

But under institutions which like ours exclude all titles 
of nobility and hereditary rank : — which utterly forbid 
primogeniture and entailments, and which are based 
upon the immutable truth that all men are created equal, 
and have an indubitable right to a community of privi- 
leges, it would appear to a reflecting mind a matter of as- 
tonishment that any advocates can be found for unequal 
laws and exclusive privileges; — for laws and privileges 
which are calculated and designed to bestow wealth 
upon the rich, and to inflict privation upon the poor; in 
short, to benefit the few, at the expense of the many. 

One of the first truths which we are taught to believe 
is, that the whole family of man, the thousand millions 
of human beings which swarm upon the earth's surface, 
derive their origin from a single pair. The fecundity of 
the human race under institutions comparatively free is 
strongly exemplified on this continent. But so heavy is 
the hand of power upon human liberty, and the exactions 
of government upon the means of subsistence in the old 
world, that the political economists of Europe designate 
five hundred years as the period for the duplication of 
its inhabitants; whilst in many parts of the United States 
it is known that the population has doubled in a quarter 
of a century, and even less. 

Let the advocate of unequal and monopolizing laws, 
forget himself if possible, for a moment, and extend his 
contemplations into the future. Let him estimate the 
ever growing numbers of human beings who will neces- 
sarily be the victims of the injustice of government. — 
Perhaps he has children. If he has a family, figures 
which never deceive nor equivocate, will demonstrate to 
him, that on the assumption of a duplication in twenty- 



8 

five years, his blood will soon flow in the veins of thou- 
sands, hundreds of thousands, and finally of millions of 
human beings, in the lapse of a few rapid centuries. — 
By the aid of imagination let him convoke these millions 
into his presence, and contemplate the actual condition 
which reason informs him they will occupy. And by a 
mental effort let him transfer himself into the situation 
of his descendants, and he will then be able to form 
some estimate of the amount of poverty,, .wretchedness, 
ignorance and crime which will meet his vision in the 
aggregated multitudes before him, and which to the ex- 
tent of his agency in the enactment of unjust laws, is 
the infliction of his own hands. He will be able in some 
measure .also to calculate how much the mountain of hu- 
man misery is augmented by the practical abnegation of 
the eternal truth, that all men, being created equal, are 
consequently entitled to the enjoyment of equal laws. 

For him who has studied the history of man, and ex- 
amined the elements of human society, the light of the 
past throws its rays into the future. The wreck of for- 
tunes, the dilapidation of aflluent families, and the sudden 
transitions from riches to poverty, have chequered the 
annals of every age ; and have become too prevalent in 
modern times to elude the observation of any. And it 
is impossible to doubt but that such visitations will fre- 
quently be the lot of our race in future. He therefore 
who lends his aid towards tlie establishment of unequal 
laws, and exclusive privileges, is obnoxious, like others, 
to the vicissitudes of fortune ; and may find himself sud- 
denly stripped of his possessions and blighted in his hopes, 
and in a state of wretchedness and poverty may deplore 
the load of exclusion and injustice which then oppresses 
him, and which he himself had helped to impose. 

And if the advocate for inequality is insensible to the 
dictates of patriotism, and the obvious claims of justice ; 
if he regards with heartless apathy the future lot of liis 



own children and descendants ; if he is callous to the 
sufferings, and deaf to the execrations of countless future 
generations ; or if he is so cold and concentrated as to be 
unable to extend his conceptions beyond the mean and 
narrow circle of selfishness, yet even egotism itself will 
teach him if he will reason, that, when the contingencies 
of human life are duly considered, the balance of proba- 
bilities in favor of his own permanent success, is on the 
side of that perfect equality of rights, which, like the 
light of heaven, is indiscriminately dispensed to all. 

But strange as it may appear, neither reason, nor jus- 
tice, nor patriotism, nor love of offspring, nor even chas- 
tened self love, is found sufficient to restrain a portion of 
mankind from endeavoring to pervert the laws and insti- 
tutions of society to their own temporary aggrandisement, 
and to the permanent oppression of the mass of their fel- 
low creaturfes. Such has ever been the case in all the 
governments of the world, where human passions were 
not subdued into silence by the iron sway of absolute 
despotism. 

In proportion as freedom exists, the workings of ambi- 
tion, and the aspirations for power, for wealth, and for 
distinction are developed. And to satiate these desires, 
the detestable maxim that " the means justifies the end," 
finds too often a practical illustration. 

It is doubtless for wise purposes that good and evil are 
intimately blended in the affairs of human life. Where 
industry is dormant, nutritious plants are choked by nox- 
ious w^eeds. And whilst vigilance reposes, corrupt prin- 
ciples germinate, and spread with luxuriant growth. This 
ordinance of the great Creator was doubtless designed to 
call into exercise the latent energies of man ; to arouse 
his faculties, to exercise his powers, and to stimulate into 
full developement both his mental and physical attributes. 
The very tenure of man's existence is watchfulness and 
industry. So God has ordained. 



10 

In a government organized like ours with the right of 
suffrage in the hands of every citizen, the aristocratic few 
could never accomplish their unjust purposes without a 
resort to disguise and deception. Open and palpable at- 
tacks upon the rights of the many would at once be re- 
sisted and repelled. And it is only by fraud, by perver- 
sion, and falsehood, and by appeals to the passions instead 
of the understanding, that the aspiring demagogue and 
voracious monopolist can hope to succeed. And hence 
the vast importance of the general diffusion of sound 
principles and correct information. Hence the responsi- 
bihty which rests upon every citizen wdio feels within his 
bosom the impulse of patriotism, who desires to enjoy and 
to transmit unimpaired the blessings of civil liberty, care- 
fully to investigate and rightly to understand the legiti- 
mate duties and functions of human government. He will 
thus be enabled at all times to apply an unerring test to 
the exercise of power, and if it is an encroachment, to 
unmask the cheat, and to detect the impostor. 

Every action of government which has an influence 
upon human affairs is reducible to ascertained principles. 
There is indeed nothing in the physical, or even the me- 
taphysical w^orld, but what feels the impress, and obeys 
the direction of the Creator's laws. No interregnum can 
be found in the works of creation. Nothing has been left 
by the great and wise Architect to the caprice of chance, 
or the sport of contingency. Cause and effect pervade 
and govern all. 

The monetary law^s, the laws of trade, and indeed all 
the laws which appertain to national, civic and social in- 
tercommunication among men, are as determinate and 
fixed in their general results, as the laws of light, heat 
and gravitation. If the various elements which enter 
into problems in political economy were fully and justly 
appreciated, the result in all cases could be as accurately 
ascertained as in mathematical science. Why is it that 



11 

there are no factions nor party spirit amongst the devotees 
of mathematics ? Simply because a knowledge of the 
power of numbers enables the possessor to put all cavil 
at defiance, by an exhibition of truth in the clearness of 
demonstration. And if the legitimate principles of go- 
vernment, and the effect of the exercise of its powers 
upon the affairs of life, were accurately understood by all, 
there would, for the same reason, be no parties in poli- 
tics. And the demagogue might then exclaim in the 
language of the great poet of nature, "Othello's occupa- 
tion's gone !" It is upon the supposed ignorance, credul- 
ity and gullibility of the community that the treacherous 
demagogue builds his whole hopes of success. 

How inappreciable then is knowledge in all the compli- 
cated relations of human life. And how impressive the 
obligation upon every individual, not only to inform him- 
self correctly upon every topic which has an influence 
upon his welfare, but to diffuse, as far as possible, the 
blessings of education and the light of science ; and ear- 
nestly to inculcate the momentous truth that the only 
sure basis of free institutions is knowledge and virtue. 

It was for the want of this basis that the ancient demo- 
cracies (if so they may be called,) lost the popular control 
and crumbled into ruins. An ignorant and illiterate mul- 
titude, under the guidance of passion instead of reason, 
ever have been, and ever will be, an easy prey to the 
macliinations of the aspiring few. By artfully diffusing 
amongst such a populace the germs of jealousy, fear, ha- 
tred, cupidity and ambition, they are broken into hostile 
fragments, and exhaust their energies in mutual destruc- 
tion. Such has been the fate of all former attempts to 
maintain popular government. Brief and tempestuous 
were the periods of their duration. And if the dema- 
gogues of ancient times had possessed the malign ingenuity 
of devising an expanding and contracting circulating 
medium under the treacherous guise of a "credit system," 



12 

the ignorant mass would have been the more easily cor- 
rupted, the fitful days of popular sway would have been 
rendered still more compendious, and the night of despo- 
tism accelerated. 

Having briefly alluded to the fundamental principles 
of government, and the equal and inalienable rigths of all 
men to the enjoyment of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness," which rights and principles were solemnly 
proclaimed by our fathers as " self-evident truths," a hasty 
retrospection of our political history, and a few remarks 
on the times in which we live, will perhaps not be amiss. 
The spirit of aristocracy which has always been found 
in every government where human freedom was not 
wholly suppressed, gave strong manifestations of its ex- 
istence even in the very organization of ours. And 
under various disguises and a variety of names, it has 
been perpetuated to the present day. In the Conven- 
tion which formed the Constitution of the United States, 
a strenuous effort w^as made to create a President and 
Senate for life, and to assimilate the government as nearly 
as possible to a monarchy. In violation of the " self-evi- 
dent truth" that "government derives its just powers 
from the consent of the governed," it was insisted that 
it ought to be placed above the popular control, and that 
it should possess sufficient strength to repress what was 
denominated "the turbulence of Democracy." 

Notwithstanding the oppressions which the British 
government habitually practised upon its subjects ; its 
sinecures, its extravagance, its debts, its monopolies, its 
exactions, its meretricious connexion of church and state, 
and its close alliance with an overshadowing monied 
power of its own creation ; — notwithstanding the atro- 
cious usurpations and cruelties which it had perpetrated 
upon its American Colonies; cruelties, which had caused 
the sword to leap from its scabbard, and the lives of 
thousands to be sacrificed: Yet this very government 



13 

with its blood-stained hands, with all its imperfections 
on its head, was earnestly urged as a model for ours; 
and it was boldly pronounced to be " the greatest effort 
of human invention." 

But the zealous efforts of the aristocratic few in the 
Convention were defeated. The highest Executive and 
legislative officers were made elective and responsible 
to the people. No power to create a religious establish- 
ment was granted; and an express inhibition against the 
exercise of such power was afterwards adopted in an 
amendment to the Constitution. 

And although three distinct attempts, in various 
forms, were made, as appears by the now published re- 
cords of the convention, to bestow the power of creating 
a National Bank (one of the attempts in the broad lan- 
guage of granting the power generally to create corpo- 
rations,) yet these several propositions were repelled by 
a strong and indignant vote. The recollection of the 
curse of a depreciated and rotten paper currency under 
the name of Continental money, which had reduced 
thousands to beggary, was too vivid to tolerate for a mo- 
ment the bestowment of the power of reiterating this 
bitter infliction. And to prevent as far as possible all 
future attempts to torture and extort powers by implica- 
tion, on this or any other subject, it was ordained that 
all powers not expressly granted, were reserved to the 
people and the States. 

The constitution which was formed, together with its 
subsequent amendments, embodied sounder principles 
of freedom, and greater safeguards to human liberty 
than any social compact which had ever been devised 
by the wit of man : And, moreover, it required of all 
public functionaries a solemn asseveration before the 
Supreme Being to observe its provisions. 

But principles, and written compacts, and obligations 
and oaths, are but feeble barriers against the aggressive 



14 

encroachments of cupidity and ambition. The formation 
of a constitution ever so wise and just in its principles, 
instead of affording permanent security, is but the inci- 
pient step to the enjoyment of equal rights. And the 
continuous history of all preceding times affords to man 
the solemn and impressive admonition to eternal vigi- 
lance ; and that he must continually work out his liberty, 
like his salvation, with fear and trembling. 

During the first administration under the present con- 
stitution, General Alexander Hamilton, who was the 
prime spirit of the aristocratic party in the convention, 
had the address to procure the incorporation of a National 
Bank, in defiance of the constitution, and against the most 
strenuous opposition of the Author of the Declaration of 
Independence. Jefferson was the founder and leader of 
the Republican, and Hamilton of the Aristocratic, or self- 
styled Federal party: And the principles of these lead- 
ers, as exemplified in their acts, and recorded in their 
writings, will ever, while the Republic endures, form an 
accurate political test, both of measures and of men. — 
Without a sincere and practical belief in the fundamen- 
tal principles contained in the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, every profession of Republicanism is hollow and 
hypocritical : And hostility to monopolies which destroy 
equality of rights, and to the creation of a public debt, 
which always imposes unequal and heavy burdens upon 
the many, and opposition also to the extension of the 
power of government beyond its legitimate boundaries, 
are clear deductions from these principles. 

During the first and second administrations, the Aris- 
tocratic party exerted themselves to give to the govern- 
ment and its functionaries the pomp and .show,, and 
circumstance of royalty. But it was under General 
Washington's successor that the greatest scope was given 
to the exhibition of the true characteristics of federalism. 
To overawe and subdue the people into submission. 



15 

black-cockades were mounted, the alien and sedition 
laws enacted, and rigorously enforced; and the bitter- 
ness and persecution which were inflicted upon all who 
dared to question any of the acts of government, caused 
that gloomy period to be emphatically denominated " the 
reign of terror," 

And here, it is hoped that it may not be deemed impro- 
per, to enquire what course the present Federal candidate 
for the Presidency pursued in those gloomy days of fede- 
ral sin, and democratic suffering. Then in the vigor and 
ardor of generous youth, wiien patriotic sympathies are 
spontaneously aroused, did he fold his arms in apathetic 
indifference and take no part in the struggles of his coun- 
try against the outrages of power? Or, did he even 
sanction those outrages by quietly enjoying the emolu- 
ments of office under the elder Adams ? 

He has recently given a response to this question, and 
admitted that the termination of "the reign of terror" 
left him an official incumbent. And now in the decline 
of years, the American people are clamorously urged to 
place him in the Presidential chair, as the guardian of 
their rights; and to believe that his second juvenility is 
more patriotic than the first. 

During "the reign of terror" the aristocratic party 
claimed to possess all the w^ealth, all the talents, and all 
the religion; and they stigmatized their political oppo- 
nents with the most contumelious abuse. They used the 
word democrat to designate w^hatever w'as low, and base, 
and opprobrious; and applied this epithet unsparingly to 
the republican party. The mass of the people w^as designa- 
ted as the " swinish multitude." The terms " troglodite" 
and " cattle" were not then embraced by the lore, nor 
contained in the vocabulary of federalism. 

A contempt for the intelligence of the great body of 
the people, and an ardent veneration for irresponsible 
power, have ever been the characteristics of the aristo- 



16 

cratic party. Hence that department of government 
which is placed at the greatest distance from the popular 
control ; to wit, the Supreme Court of the United States, 
has ever been the theme of unqualified eulogy. And 
the decisions of that tribunal which have been the most 
favorable to monopolies, to the suppression of State rights, 
and the creation of an absorbing central power, have re- 
ceived from the Federal party, at all times, the most 
unqualified applause. 

Although the high-handed measures of "the reign of 
terror" produced a prostration of federalism in 1801; 
yet its spirit, although discomfited, was not subdued. — 
The vile slanders and abuse uttered against Mr. Jefferson 
and all his measures during the eight years of his adminis- 
tration by the party who now affect to revere his name, 
and to admire his principles, ought never to be forgotten. 

The aggressions of Great Britain on the ocean, both 
on the persons and property of our citizens, her orders 
in council, and the impressment of our seamen, found 
constant apologists in the Federal leaders. The deter- 
mined opposition of this party to the second war of In- 
dependence, the hostility to enlistments, and to every 
aid to our government, the mortification at our suc- 
cesses, shamefully uttered in the sentiment, that it was 
unbecoming a moral and religious people to rejoice 
at victories obtained in an unjust war ; the burning of 
blue, nocturnal lights upon our coast as signals to the 
enemies' ships, and the organization of the notorious 
Hartford Convention, are indellibly stamped in burning 
characters upon the forehead of federalism. 

So utterly humbled and disgraced was this faction by 
the glorious termination of the war, that they professed 
an utter dissolution of their party organization, and an 
abandonment of the name of federalists; and to the latter 
they have adhered. But the same party have maintained 
a fraternity of feeling, and kept up an efficient organiza- 



17 

tion under various names and disguises to the present day. 
They have always claimed and exercised the privilege not 
only of changing their party appellation as often as they 
chose, but also of bestow^ing names upon their opponents. 

By way of stigma they have successively denominated 
the republican party as "Democrats," " Bucktails," "Pew- 
ter-mug politicians," and " Locofocos;" and to themselves 
they have in turn assumed the cognomen of " Federal- 
ists," " Peace Party," " National Republicans," " Whigs," 
" Democratic Whigs," and " Log Cabin" party. They 
appear to assume it as an established fact that the great 
mass of the community are so destitute of reasoning pow- 
ers and intelligence, that mere names possess a potent 
influence. Apparently in pursuance of this assumption 
a respectable gentleman of this city of the old federal 
school, (if newspaper history is to be credited,) dug up, 
a few years since, from among the mouldering records of 
the Revolution the once venerated name of Whig ; and 
with great originality of conception he proposed to bap- 
tise the party to which he belonged, with this appella- 
tion ; and the whole party quietly submitted to the po- 
litical ordinance. 

Federalism having been so signally rebuked and pros- 
trated in former times by public sentiment, is now cau- 
tious in openly expressing its contempt for the popular 
intelligence. It no longer boldly designates the labor- 
ing classes as " the sw inish multitude ;" but if actions are 
a true index to the thoughts of the heart, it now mentally 
and practically pronounces them to be of this description. 

The appliances of modern whiggery in the existing 
presidential contest, speak a language wiiich cannot be 
misunderstood. And intelligent foreigners wdio come 
among us, and who are informed that a great political 
party is striving to secure the suffrages of the communi- 
ty, for a chief magistrate of the Republic, by erecting 
log cabins, by largesses of hard cider and other intoxi- 



18 

eating drinks, by the display of raccoon skins and roast- 
ed oxen, and by deafening exclamations of " Old Tip," 
and " Ty," would at once come to the conclusion, either 
that the leaders of this party were insane, or that the 
population of the country was indeed a " swinish multi- 
tude," a brutalized and ignorant rabble. Can any other 
inference be drawn from the empty noise, the senseless 
exclamations, the pompous boasts, the multitudinous ga- 
therings, the rolling of bails, and other fantastic exhibi- 
tions of modern whiggery, than that the leaders firmly 
believe what federalism in former times had the boldness 
to avow, that the great mass of mankind are a " swinish 
multitude ;" and that an appeal to the senses, and the 
passions, to the eyes, and ears, and taste, is the only sure 
method of leading and controlling the community. The 
success of such an appeal would strongly tend to corro- 
borate the maxim of kings and despots, that man is ut- 
terly incapable of self-government. 

The invitation to bachanalian excesses which is offered 
by log cabin displays, and the " hard cider" watch word, 
will doubtless make serious inroads upon the public mo- 
rals ; and the friends of temperance will long deplore the 
fact so humiliating to our country that the self-styled whig 
party has deemed it expedient to put drunkenness in re- 
quisition as an auxiliary to their political advancement. 

It has always been one of the arts of federalism to 
address itself most strongly to human cupidity, as though 
sordid interest alone was the controlling influence which 
actuates mankind. During Jefferson's administration 
foreign rapacity was defended, and he was falsely charg- 
ed with producing the commercial embarrassments which 
existed. And while the country was afterwards strug- 
gling in a sanguinary conflict with a powerful enemy, the 
leaders of this party, regardless of the liberty and inde- 
pendence of the Republic, sighed aloud, in lugubrious 
tones, for " the golden days of commercial prosperity." 



19 

The same false charges are now made against the pre- 
sent administration of the general government, and the 
same tones are now loudly uttered with the variation 
only of a single word, occasioned by the modern whig 
discovery that gold is a " humbug," and "paper" is there- 
fore substituted for " golden.'" 

The great body of the people are probably better in- 
formed on every other subject connected with the public 
welfare than on the laws of trade which govern both 
domestic and foreign commercial intercourse ; and also 
on the laws and functions of a circulating medium. And 
the aristocrat, the conservative, and the gambling spec- 
ulator endeavor to profit by this lack of information, and 
to keep the community in the dark by boldly propagating 
the most preposterous dogmas. The laws to which allu- 
sion has been made are as fixed and certain in their ope- 
ration as all the other laws which have been provided by 
the Creator. 

The acquisition of knowledge, and the exercise of rea- 
son, will guide man in safety over the tempestuous fluc- 
tuations of human life. Who is there that could love and 
venerate a Deity, who, he believed had made the life of 
man an insolvable enigma, an inextricable labyrinth con- 
stantly inveloped in shadows, clouds and darkness, with- 
out any clue to direct his steps ? 

The merchant and man of business in conducting their 
pecuniary atTairs, in ascertaining the amount of values, in 
estimating interest and regulating balances, rely with 
safety on the law of figures, and make this law their only 
guide. They would not for a moment depend upon con- 
jecture, nor upon any hypothesis which the cupidity of 
others might propose. Should they be told by the inter- 
ested that the fundamental rules of arithmetic were not 
to be relied on, that two and two did not always make 
four, the tax would be too great for their credulity. Their 



20 

knowledge of first principles, on this subject, puts decep- 
tion at defiance. 

And if they had carefully studied the laws of a circu- 
lating medium, and the principles which regulate com- 
mercial intercourse, they would be equally invulnerable 
to the gross misrepresentations with which the federal 
press has long teemed. The charges that the contrac- 
tions, expansions, and revulsions, the fluctuation in prices, 
the wide spread demoralization, the vile spirit of gam- 
bling and speculation, the ruin of fortunes and the deso- 
lation of families which have formed a series of sad visi- 
tations within the last few years, have in the slightest 
measure been produced or augmented by the government, 
cannot make the least impression upon any one who has 
examined and who understands the laws under the action 
of which alone such visitations are created. If like causes 
produce like effects, a solution, on this subject, is readily 
found in distant countries, and in other times. 

A knowledge of the history of Law's paper money 
bank in France, and of the revulsions which the paper 
system has frequently inflicted upon the people of Eng- 
land during the last seventy years, some of them contem- 
poraneous with ours, will satisfy any reasoning individual 
of the true causes of our past and present commercial 
embarrassments. Whilst the power of contracting and 
expanding the standard of value, and consequently of 
augmenting and diminishing prices in the same degree, 
is confided to corporations which are interested in pro- 
ducing these derangements, they will always exist. 

Ever since the creation of the first United States Bank, 
the federal party has been zealously devoted to its per- 
petuation. The enormous powers which such an insti- 
tution concentrates over the pecuniary affairs and busi- 
ness concerns of the country — powers which are irre- 
sponsibly exercised in secret, and often to gratify the ca- 
price or satiate the vengeance, or the cupidity of a single 



21 

individual, give it peculiar claims to aristocratic attach- 
ment. All the enormities of the late bank were defend- 
ed and eulogised by federalism. It subsidized presses, 
and whenever it found men too weak or too wicked to 
adhere to honest principles, it " bought them like cattle in 
the market." But its history is notorious, and need not 
be repeated. Under its State charter which its president 
declared was more favorable to its prosperity than its 
former one, it has pursued such a course of speculation, 
oppression and fraud as strongly exemplifies the doctrine 
of total depravity; and it has finally sunk to such imbe- 
cility and degradation as to be an object of contempt ra- 
ther than of terror. 

The bank party, although partially silenced by the late 
trespasses and sins, and prostration of their former idol, 
are only waiting for the accession of power to fasten upon 
the community a similar institution. 

They ardently desire a great and irresponsible " Re- 
gulator," connected with the government, holding in its 
custody the money of the people, and fraught with sufficient 
power to prostrate all opposition, and to control the price 
of the land and labor of the community ; a paper-issuing 
machine, under the hollow pretence of regulating the 
issues of paper ; an immense bank, to subdue and con- 
trol the lesser ones. This is simply the principle of mon- 
archy, carried directly into the banking system, and indi- 
rectly into the national government, and would be more 
destructive of public liberty than a connection of Church 
and State. 

If they succeed in the coming national election, they 
will also plunge the government into the vortex of mis- 
called internal improvement, from which it was rescued 
by the firmness and patriotism of Andrew Jackson, in his 
veto to the Maysville Road Bill; and by which veto the 
extinguishment of the national debt, which took place 
shortly thereafter, was secured. 



22 

Their success will enable them to put in practice the 
primeval doctrines of federalism that the "turbulence of 
democracy" must be repressed by the strong arm of pow- 
er ; and also that " a national debt is a national blessing." 

The specimen of federal rule Avhich is now exhibited 
in this State, affords an admonitory lesson to every advo- 
cate of equal laws and free institutions. Independent of 
general profligacy and comprehensive extravagance, the 
violence and injustice of partial and vindictive legisla- 
tion, has been adopted at the late session. The Registry 
Law is a naked act of physical power, wholly unsuscep- 
tible of disguise or apology. Its authors dared not make 
it general; and it is highly complimentary to the demo- 
crats of this city, that, in the narrow spirit of retail ven- 
geance, it was exclusively directed against them. It was 
their union, efficiency, and victories, — it was their attach- 
ment to the unadulterated principles of the Author of 
the Declaration of Independence that called down upon 
their heads this special outpouring of aristocratic ire. — 
But neither the bitter persecutions of enemies, nor the 
traitorous abandonment of false and renegade friends, 
will shake their faith or impede their works. 

The contest which approaches is fraught with princi- 
ples, and involves results more momentous to the Repub- 
lic than any other that has occurred since 1801. On the 
one side is arrayed the aristocratic spirit, with its pride, 
its wealth, and its hungering and thirsting for power. — 
To show its love for the " swinish multitude" it contri- 
butes liberally to erect rude structures, which, replenished 
with drink, and abounding with noise, riot and gluttony, 
more nearly resemble the pig-sties of the country than 
the quiet, primitive dwellings of its enterprising inhabi- 
tants. It believes that the mass of mankind are mentally 
imbecile ; and it therefore proposes mental imbecility for 
their suffrages. It assumes that men can only be governed 
by their fears, and led by their senses; and hence the 



23 

renunciation of all reasoning, and the resort to naked 
and impudent assertion, to show, and parade, and noise, 
and mummery. On no former occasion has federalism 
exhibited such an utter contempt for the public intelli- 
gence, and for the human understanding. 

On the other side of the contest is arrayed that uncon- 
querable spirit of democracy which in the revolutionary 
struggle achieved our Independence; — that spirit which 
successfully resisted the iron sway of federalism in the 
days of terror : — that spirit which carried the Republic in 
triumph through the second war of Independence ; — 
that spirit which in periods of the greatest gloom and 
despondency has ever sustained the permanent interests 
and honor of the country; — that irrepressible spirit of 
freedom and of equal rights whose energies are ever most 
strongly exercised under the heaviest assaults of its ene- 
mies ; — that spirit, in short, which indignantly repels the 
upstart pride of aristocracy and which perpetually and 
practically adopts as its polar star the self-evident truth 
that " all men are created equal." And who can doubt the 
result in such a contest ? 

On this day, the anniversary of the birth of rational 
freedom, it surely cannot be inappropriate to recur to those 
sacred principles, by the maintainance of which alone, in 
their pristine purity, human liberty can be sustained and 
perpetuated. If ever the period arrives when these 
principles are adulterated or abandoned, the commemo- 
ration of this day will degenerate into the empty pomp, 
noise, and pageantry of a regal coronation; calculated 
merely to attract the vacant gaze of an ignorant multi- 
tude. But far, very far from us be the thought, that such 
is ever to be the destiny of this republic. 

The human mind, long shrouded in darkness, and re- 
pressed in its energies by tyrannical government, strug- 
gled through countless ages and sanguinary vicissitudes 
before it obtained such a knowledge of first principles, 



24 

such an acquaintance with the laws of the Creator, as are 
indispensable to the temporal and social welfare of man. 
And this knowledge must be obliterated and the human 
race thrown back into barbarism, before the ever rest- 
less spirit of domination can permanently reinstate itself 
in power. Such an intellectual rev^olution is impossible. 
The mental philosophy of federalism that " matter governs 
mind" is destined to a signal rebuke. And the patriot 
may indulge not only the ardent aspiration, but the unsha- 
ken belief, that the principles of equal liberty will triumph. 



